The first step for lettering is choosing the text of the message, and
then drawing a circle on a piece of paper to determine the placement of the
letters. If your text is too long to split into two distinct regions, like top and bottom,
consider placing the text around the entire circumpherence of the head.

Choosing text: Most likely, you want to place the name of your corps on
the drum head, maybe hometown or region and date of origin. Our name
happens to be long enough (short enough?) that, with proper spacing, we could eat up
the entire circumpherence of the head without the spacing looking
crowded. We settled on "Excelsior Brigade" for the outer ring of
words, with Excelsior around the top, and Brigade at the bottom.

The next step is to choose the color for the lettering. The original
design sheet (aka, piece of paper) can be photo copied and handed out
to the more color inclined in your corps. Our colors were pretty easy
to choose, though in the past we've used red with black highlights
instead of the color of our uniforms, light blue and royal blue.
We haven't bothered repainting the red/black painted drums though, as the
difference is not readily noticed by the average person on the street and
some of us feel it ads a bit of an interesting twist to our normal
look. (certainly breaks the boredome of looking at all that light blue!)
The coloring part can be a great way to touch all members of the corps,
handing out crayons and pictures of drums brings out the artist in just about
everyone, especially the children.

The next step is to choose the font for the lettering. We chose
a very simple font with no character tails (sans-serif). A computer substitute font
would be something like Arial, Univers or Olive. These fonts can be
stenciled very easily, in fact, your local craft shop may have the required
stencils in stock. If you can't acquire the stencils at a craft shop, you
can make your own by purchasing stencil material or using heavy paper. Cut
the font as true as possible using either scissors or a sharp utility knife.
If using a computer to generate the fonts, set the size of the characters
to as large a practically possible, and print the text on regular paper,
then transfer the character to the stencil material at a later time.

Trace the letters lightly in pencil on the surface of the head and examine
the design for alignment problems and asthetic issues. Sometimes the script
looks out of place on the drum, when it was perfectly acceptable on paper.
Carefully paint the letters with a sturdy latex paint. If painting a
skin head, you may wish to paint the head with the drum tighened, as
stretching the skin after the pain dries may cause cracking and other
problems with the surface of the head.